Memorable and striking characters Essay

Another way in which Charles Dickens creates memorable and striking characters is by the way he describes how the characters look, as in my opinion a description of what they look like helps me to remember the characters. We first hear Abel Magwitch rather than see him. When we do hear him we learn that he has a â€Å"terrible voice†. On our first impressions we could think he is a ghost as Dickens says, â€Å"As a man started up from among the graves†. Then a full description of Magwitch begins and Dickens throws lots of descriptive words at us in a rhythmic manner. Magwitch is first described as â€Å"A fearful man† â€Å"All in coarse grey† â€Å"With a great iron on his leg†. This is very monosyllabic, suggesting a very basic man. This also immediately gives us the impression that he is an escaped convict, which later in the story we find out he is. In Victorian times an escaped convict would have filled the reader with utter fear. Dickens also says that Magwitch isn’t wearing any hat, which would be regarded as disrespectful, and that he is not a gentleman, as he isn’t wearing a hat. Dickens also uses a lot of verbs in the description regarding the way Magwitch looks, such as: – â€Å"soaked† â€Å"smothered† â€Å"lamed† â€Å"cut† â€Å"stung† and â€Å"torn† which suggests that the environment is hostile towards him and that it has disabled him in some way. There is also a strong sense of rhythm throughout the description, for example â€Å"soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles and torn by briars†. The â€Å"Cut by flints† is almost onomatopoeic in that it gives a choppy monosyllabic effect to capture the act. Dickens finishes off his description of Abel Magwitch by writing verbs like: – â€Å"shivered†, â€Å"limped†, â€Å"glared† and â€Å"growled†. The glared and growled gives us alliteration and proves just how animal like he is, as Magwitch is conveyed as beast like in a wilderness, who is hunted by society. When Pip first sees Miss Havisham he describes her as â€Å"The strangest lady he had ever seen†. There is then a full description of Miss Havisham that proves just how strange and emotionally scared she is. Dickens says that she is dressed in rich materials- satins, and lace, and silks, we can tell from this that is an extremely upper class woman. We start to realise she is strange when Dickens says everything she wore was white. When he says white, we associate it with a wedding and we learn that she was abandoned at the altar later in the book. She has been at Manor/ Satis house for a long time, we can tell this when Dickens says, â€Å"The dress she wore had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow†, and also when he says â€Å"The bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress†. We can tell there is no hope left in her and that she is miserable when Charles Dickens says she has â€Å"Sunken eyes†. Now Pip sees her as â€Å"Ghostly waxwork†. Miss Havisham is regarded as waxwork, as skin and bones but also as a skeleton. She is like the living dead, if you excuse the oxymoron. The way the characters behave is another way in which Charles Dickens creates his memorable and striking characters. Magwitch behaves in a totally bizarre way with Pip, for example: – he turns Pip upside down, which is a symbolic action for when he turns Pip upside down, its like he has turned Pip’s life upside down, which he eventually does. Magwitch also behaves differently as when he finds some bread in Pip’s pocket he eats the bread ravenously, which makes us realise just how hungry and animal like Magwitch is. Magwitch behaves very roughly with Pip as we can see from the descriptions â€Å"Took me by both arms, and tilted me back as far as he could hold me†. This is the ‘action’ of a man who is desperate and needs Pip’s help. Miss Havisham also behaves not just strangely but the way she behaves is grotesque, as she tells Pip â€Å"I have sick fancies, and I have sick fancies that I want to see some play†. I mean who says that to a young boy, it’s just disgusting. She also orders Pip almost as soon as he gets through the door, I think that this is because she thinks that just because she is a wealthy she has the right to order Pip about because he is a working class boy. Another way in which she behaves strangely is that she talks out loud but doesn’t seem to care if Pip can hear or understand what she is saying. The last way in which Dickens creates both memorable and striking characters is by the way he makes them speak. Speech is a very important vehicle in characterisation as it determine a lot about the characters, for example: – where they are from and their social class. When both Magwitch and Miss Havisham speak, they both use imperatives but we realise that Magwitch needs to issue imperatives out of necessity whereas Miss Havisham wants to issue imperatives because she feels she can because she is an upper class woman and Pip is a working class boy. We realise that there is a lot of communication between Magwitch and Pip, but when Pip is with Miss Havisham he is the audience. We also realise that Magwitch uses ‘you’ all the time whereas Miss Havisham uses ‘I’ all the time, as she is full of self-absorption. When we first hear Abel Magwitch speak, he speaks with such force and aggression that we think he is a dangerous man. When Magwitch speaks he uses lots of imperatives, such as â€Å"Keep still or I’ll cut your throat! † and â€Å"Hold your noise! † these two sentences are also part of a number of sentences that are monosyllabic. Dickens also uses lots of dialectal grammar for example, â€Å"Tell us your name†. When Magwitch says â€Å"Pint out the place! † this suggests that he may be from a particular region as ‘pint’ is a dialectal word. When Magwitch says â€Å"What fat cheeks you ha’ got† it is quite comical in a way as Magwitch is so hungry he is wanting to eat Pip’s cheeks. When Magwitch turns away as he thinks that Pip’s mother is nearby we can tell that he lives a life of constantly been afraid. After Pip says that both his parents are dead Magwitch says â€Å"Ha! † but this â€Å"Ha! † is not an evil ha, it is a desperate man trying to sound sarcastic muttering, which proves just how desperate he is. When he learns that Pip is an orphan we see a side of him, a warm kind side when he asks all these questions, and Magwitch realises that he can depend on Pip. When he orders Pip by saying, â€Å"You get me a file, and you get me wittles, and you bring ’em both to me† we notice the repetition of the word ‘you’ that suggests that Magwitch is desperate and in a panic, and that Pip (this young boy) is the only person who can help him. When Magwitch describes the man who is in hiding with him, he creates the most horrific and violent imagery, which indeed scares Pip. When Pip says â€Å"Goo- good night sir† Magwitch replies with â€Å"Much of that, I wish I was a frog, or an eel† which proves just how much he hates himself, and that he wants to be someone/ something else, and with that he goes limping into the distance. When we first hear Miss Havisham she comes across as a little, sad, vulnerable, weak, feeble old lady when she says â€Å"Who is it? † however, even though she says this, it arouses our suspicions because she was the person who invited him, so therefore, is expecting him. When Miss Havisham is speaking there is a lot of commands that are styled as imperatives. Miss Havisham starts to open out when she says â€Å"You are not afraid of a woman who has never seen the son since you were born? † When she says this, it is effective sibilance; it is also taunting and full of utter spite. â€Å"What do I touch†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ broken† this sentence is Miss Havisham’s monologue, it is also full of spite, this sentence is also a very odd thing to say to a young boy such as Pip. When Miss Havisham says, â€Å"I am tired, I want diversion, and I have done with men and women, play! † we see that it is all about her, it is full of self-absorption, as she is always saying ‘I’ the readers also realise that something is not quite right when she says this sentence. She then becomes extremely insulting towards Pip when she says â€Å"Are you Sullen and Obstinate† which proves that Miss Havisham is extremely well educated owing to the long sentences and the complex vocabulary she employs. She also talks in riddles when she says â€Å"So new to him, so old to me, so strange to him, so familiar to me† which is not only comparing herself to Pip, but when she says this sentence, it’s like she doesn’t care if Pip hears and understands her or not. Miss Havisham doesn’t think that Pip can do anything for himself and she proves this by saying â€Å"You can do that. Call Estella. At the door†, which is ordering Pip to call Estella in a strange house. I think this is one reason why Pip feels very uncomfortable in Manor house, as it is totally outside his experience- a working class boy in the presence of middle/ high-class society. When Miss Havisham says to Estella â€Å"Well you can break his heart† we see what her plan is and Miss Havisham is also been very horrible. When she asks Pip, what does he think of Estella? She is being a bit cheeky, quite controlling and very mean, but it is the only sentence she says to him politely. When he does say (in her ear) Miss Havisham keeps prompting him, which in my opinion is very taunting, but overall that is what Miss Havisham is. So to conclude there are three main ways, in which Charles Dickens creates his memorable and striking characters. Firstly by the way he describes the setting, secondly by the way Dickens delineates the characters, for example: – the way the characters look and behave and thirdly by the way the characters speak. We have learnt that Abel Magwitch is a kind, desperate man who needed Pips help, and that Miss Havisham is a strange, grotesque, mean old lady who just likes to boss people around, having said this, in my opinion the reader feels a small amount of sympathy for her. We wouldn’t expect that Magwitch and Miss Havisham are totally reversed on our first impressions, but the whole theme is about our expectations. Dickens has created a number of successful characters, and because of their capturing description we can hear and see the characters, and because we know them and Dickens has brought them alive, we remember them for the rest of our lives.